Trio

The David Freeman Trio came out of mothballs to play a gig last night--the usual corporate awards dinner kind of thing.  This one was a bit unusual because it began with two hours(!) of solo saxophone, then a bit of "play them into the room," an hour or so of dinner, and a last song to play them out.  David Ellington played keyboard and Kevin Smith played bass.  I guess I should have brought my hat.

Right off the bat, a curveball.  Even though it was confirmed the previous week that we would be sax, keyboard, and bass (and therefore needing a microphone and 2 DIs to get our sound to the house), our famous local sound/production company set up five lines with DIs.  When I said, "No, I'll need a microphone," they claimed not to have a single one on site.  Really.  "But we can run the keyboard in stereo!" the guy said.  Ha ha ha ha!  Like I give a shit!  Out to my truck to grab the microphone stand and crappy microphone that I keep behind the seat for just such an emergency.  

The two hours of solo saxophone actually wasn't too bad.  For whatever reason I was able to get into a groove;  my hands felt quick and light, and my horn felt good, so it was pretty easy.  Thank god, too, because I've had some solo gigs where ten minutes felt like too long.

The trio part of the the gig was painless, except for a request that led to several more requests, the last by a drunk old lady who almost fell down on her way to ask us to play At Last.  "If you play it, I'll dance!"  Uhh, no thanks.

I was kind of fried by the time we got into this, but in listening to it now, I don't sound as uncoordinated as I felt at the time.

The final portion of the evening was spent raising money--a male and female tag team with microphones, walking around the room cajoling people into dropping $1,000.  It was like Regis and Kathy Lee took over a non denominational church.  When a guy offered his tux jacket up for auction (and people actually bid on it), I got worried that my horn would be next.

We played them out of the room and the evening ended.  Never a dull moment, I guess.  Here are mp3s from the trio portion of the gig.